A variety of optical devices include an active component such as a light sensor or modulator. These active components typically guide a light signal through a component waveguide while an electrical field is applied to the component waveguide. The component waveguide can be partially defined by a ridge that extends upwards from slab regions. These active components and often plagued by an undesirably high levels of optical loss. Additionally or alternately, these active components often have inconsistent performance levels that can undesirably complicate the fabrication process.
For the above reasons, there is a need for optical devices having consistent performance and/or reduced optical loss.